Page 21 of Dirty Crown
“Thank you,” I said, standing and extending my hand. She took it and I shook hers vigorously. “Thank you so much, that’s all I’m asking for. A second chance without me using my father to buy my way back in.”
She nodded and said, “I’ll have my secretary call you for an appointment tomorrow. If that’s all, then I have work to do.”
I nodded and she was done, she dismissed me by taking some of those papers and sorting them before writing something on the top one. While she was busy, I quietly stepped around the chair and left her office.
Her secretary smiled widely as I passed, and I said, “I’ll be hearing from you tomorrow. I can’t wait!”
She nodded and waved as I left the dean’s office.
God, that hadn’t gone as badly as I thought it would. I’d found out that morning that I’d been cleared of any wrong doing in Seymour’s disappearance. Apparently she was still gone, but I just wasn’t a suspect anymore. Sandy had been the one who had stopped by to tell me, and her entire demeanor was so different than when she had been interrogating me at the police station.
She’d suddenly been contrite and friendly and even asked me where I got my jacket, as if she loved it so much she just had to run out and buy one herself.
It had been an interesting turn of events, I had to say. But it didn’t solve one thing, and that was where Seymour had gone to.
That one still haunted me, it drove me to constant distraction as I went through everything I’d said to her that drunken night, and everything I knew about the case. Sadly, that was almost nothing. I just knew she was gone, and even though all evidence pointed otherwise, I felt guilty for it. Maybe Avery had done something to get my attention, maybe Seymour had been so hurt by my horrible rant, or maybe I’d just been the proverbial straw that had broken the camel’s back. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had something to do with me.
“What’d she say?” Kingston asked as he loped to catch up to me. I was just leaving the main administration building and he’d been waiting for me. The others were dealing with their own classroom stuff, but Kingston had already been to his one class of the day. Much to his surprise, all his professors had welcomed him back.
Not to my surprise, though, most of his professors were women who seemed to get pretty flirty when he was around. And the one male prof was gay and flirtatious with my King. I loved to see it, though, him using his hot self to get ahead. Not that I’d ever point it out, to him it was just normal, the way things have already been done by women, so why not him?
“They have to rule tonight,” I said, feeling stressed and dejected, not a great combination.
“Then there’s only one thing for us to do,” he replied. “It’s time for a night of distraction and relaxation, and you know what that means.”
He nuzzled my neck, nipping playfully as he slid his hands down my ass. I giggled and tried to twist away, but I was trapped.
“I know exactly what it means,” I said in between gasps of laughter. “It means we’d better make sure we’re stocked up on lube.”
He made a low growling noise, and I realized at once that I wasn’t sure who it was for. Me or him or all of them.
But I couldn’t wait to find out.
CHAPTER9
“Catch!”Ryker called out and tossed a cherry tomato at me. I grabbed it in mid air and popped it in my mouth. I was sitting across the kitchen island from him as he prepared dinner. The four of them were doing their best to keep my mind off the ruling meeting tonight, and food was always a good start.
They spoiled me in this aspect, I was well fed and well fucked by them all. Just another reason to let my satisfaction settle in on my heart. I had always been afraid to let myself feel it, because it had always felt like I was attracting bad luck. But lately, especially after coming back from Maksim’s, I felt more comfortable leaning into my good luck. My good life. All the blessings and riches that I had, because without them I would have succumbed to the darkness years ago. I would have ended my miserable life, or become a deeply unhappy person.
I was finally learning to love what I had, and allowing it to brighten my mind.
Sometimes I felt like a frightened animal slowly being coaxed into domesticity. Step by step, being brought into their loving arms.
“You’re getting good at that,” Kingston said from where he was tenderizing the steak he was about to take outside and grill. “I guess you like things in your mouth.”
“You, of all people, should know that,” I grinned and reached for another tomato. I brought it to my lips and sucked it slowly, letting him get a good look before putting it inside my mouth. I enjoyed his immediate reaction as his mouth fell and his eyes widened.
He shifted and I knew he was hard, I could tell just by the look of him.
“Come on, we’re never getting dinner done if this is the way we’re talking,” Archer complained. “Unless you want me to find another zucchini, that is.”
“We might have one in the fridge, I’m pretty sure I picked one up at the store yesterday,” Valen said, raising an eyebrow. “I know Kingston threw in a box of condoms just in case we want to use something interesting on you, princess.”
I gasped and my chest felt hot. The heat creeped all the way up to my cheeks, but also all the way down to my throbbing pussy. As much as I had that immediate effect on them, they did the same to me. The moment they said something overtly suggestive, I was lost to them.
“Well, I mean vegetables are supposed to be good for you,” I said and blinked, looked down, and then scanned across all of them as demurely as I could.
“Fuuuck,” Kingston exhaled. “I’m not getting these cooked, am I?”
